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You can’t fast forward change in your organization. Well, you can but not without consequences. In the season of change we’ve been in lately, here are 5 lessons I’ve learned in the past few months:

• The vision of where you want to be may be too much for your team to absorb in one setting, sometimes you need to think “bite sized” chunks when navigating change with your team
• If key stakeholders are left without all the information, they can quickly feel like an outsider and shift into survival mode while filling in the blanks you’re leaving
• Have a clear message of the “win” in the change, be prepared to handle the “why” questions
• Choose to collaborate vs. dictate on the options of change, usually there are a few different paths you can take
• When roles and processes are fuzzy before the change, they’ll be a flat-out blur afterwards… create plenty of space for conversations and clarifications before, during, and after the change

Chances are, for every hour you save trying to fast forward through change, you’ll spend 2 hours on the backside picking up the pieces. So hurry up and wait for the process to works its way through…

What If:

• We could set aside our need to be “right”?
• We didn’t need to “win” the debate?
• We focused on being peacemakers and extended a hand to those we don’t understand?
• We found commonality with those “different” from us and collaborated on projects to bring real change to our communities and world?
• We responded to people not about where we think they are wrong but focused on where we could agree?
• We truly loved people?

What Could Change?

• Could Athiests and Believers agree that people need clean water and work together to bring solutions to millions in need across the globe?
• Could the tradition church find commonality with non-traditionalists and work together to bring Hope to their local communities?
• Could a church work with the gay community to fill food pantries?
• Could Christians and Muslims work together to provide relief to earthquake victims?

This is messy and doesn’t fit nice a tidy in a box. However, I do know I want to love more, talk and debate less, and be part of something Greater than myself. What might I learn about myself, others, and God from engaging more in these relationships?

This is a church I want to be part of…. this is a person I want to be…. these are the people I want to lock arms with…

• Chip & Dan Heath
  Books: Made to Stick, Switch
• What needs to change in my organization? What stands out right now
• We’ve all chosen change in our lives, why would we say we’re resistant to change? We chose to get married, have kids…
• We face internal battles anytime we want to change….
• John Hyde, “A human rider sitting on top of a 6 ton elephant… the rider and the elephant need to align for change to happen.” The rider has to convince the elephant there’s something worthy to change.
• In talking to first graders, a vision, “If you work hard this year, I can make you as smart as a third grader by the end of the year…” Keep the vision tangible for the world your “elephants” live in…
• If we have 9 ministries and 2 are working well, (5 are OK, 2 aren’t working)- focus on the top 2 that are working well and investigate… these are the things that produce a bright spot…. Study it and clone it.
• Solutions oriented therapy: “What was different when things were going well? “ It shows we’re capable of doing really well- (In marriage, alcoholics, etc)
• “All this stuff is true but useless”… In solving poverty, big problems, don’t focus on the problems and issues, look at the places where success was happening…
• One guy went into a village to see what was working with poverish families that were able to bring nutrition to their kids…. ultimately 2.2 million people were impacted with new solutions
• Big problems…. steps of small solutions…
• The “rider” can get bogged down in true but useless information. The “elephant” is unmotivated…
• A high school student asked that people would spend 10% more of their budgets within their county/local economy… in Minor County, taxes increased 15 million a year later…. Small solution, big change
• Shrink the change: Find one topic that can appeal to a 20-something scheduled at the right time… If you feel overwhelmed by a big problem, try to find small victories that show effectiveness and give us hope
• We owe it to people to prepare them for adversity… prepare our team, clients, and people of what to expect
• Company: Ideo U-shaped curve, project will start out with hope to fix a problem (on a high), a dip/valley is going to come called Insight (struggle), and end with a peak of Confidence on how we’re going to move forward.
• Tiger Woods made a decision to overhaul his swing even when he was already the best. Some people have a growth mindset. With work I can become a…. (fill in the blank)
• Built into a growth mindset is a tolerence for failure… a necessary step to success… Failure is a necessity of success. “Failure could be a warning sign to success.”
• Thomas Watson, founder of IBM…. employee lost the company 10 million dollars… Employee was worried about losing his job… Thomas Watson said, “Are you kidding? I just made a 10 million investment in you!”
• Find out what is the situation that is happening in people’s lives rather than label them as “uncommitted”, etc…
• 63% of seminary students stopped to help someone in need when they thought they had time… only 10% when they thought they were running late for something…
• Good leaders find ways to make it as easy as possible for people to connect… make it easy for the “elephant” by giving them a path that is downhill rather than uphill…
• If you’re married and have kids, you’ve already gone through bigger changes than anything we will encounter in the workplace or any big social issue you’re looking to change.

• A couch was purchased to have a place to sit- It becomes an emotional attachment over time that lingers around even when it becomes outdated and irrelevant. We keep it around too long…. how does this apply to your church, business, team…. ?
• Leadership styles are going to vary, there is no cookie- cutter- don’t spend all your time trying to mirror other people’s style- press into your own God-given flavor-
• If we were to start completely over, would we still choose to be doing the things we’re currently doing?
• Church programming is created to meet a specific need-
• As programming begins as an answer to a question, over time it becomes part of a church’s organizational culture- (makes them difficult to change but may not be needed or is no longer effective any more)
• As culture changes, the methods will need to change but the questions tend to stay the same
• As leaders we’re called to lead people to see things the way we see them- otherwise we’ll never be able to get them to do what needs to be done to make a difference-
• If we institutionalize an answer, the day will come that it will no longer be an an answer
• “I want to help you think differently”- we need to see the “couch” in our ministry/business differently
• We need to be more committed to our mission than our programming or model. Programming and models can become old, outdated couches we get emotionally attached to…
• Over time, sustaining the model becomes the mission… When you fall in love with anything other than the mission- you can quickly lose focus on God’s original mission for you
• The model can begin to work against the mission- as leaders we need to monitor this- when we see this beginning, we need to lead our team/organization back to the mission-
• What have we fallen in love with that’s not as effective as it used to be?
• Where are we manufacturing energy? Having to pretend or manufacture enthusiasm for something that just isn’t that good…
• If a new person came into our church or organization, what is it that they would scrap and get rid of because they’re able to see it for what it really is? No emotional attachment… Do you have the ability to stay objective and pull the plug on things that need to be over?
• What are our organizational assumptions? Leaders must bring these assumptions in alignment with changes in the external environment. The world changes… our assumptions become wrong over time…
• Don’t try to tweak things that are broken…they’ll still be broken.
• The assumptions a team have held the longest or deeply are likely to be the things that become its undoing- Why churches don’t change- What are the things that are “off limits” for debate? Beware….
• What assumptions are false?
• :Example: We assume people want to sit in rows and listen to a speaker.
• Example: We assume Christians love to worship by singing songs they don’t know that well.
• Which assumptions are true but are not being fully leveraged?
• To reach people no one else is reaching we need to do things no one else is doing…
• How do you get rid of couches when people aren’t on board yet? You need to lead them through the process, may take time.
• Fresh eyes are needed at times to come in and point out the couches in our life, ministry, or organization…

Busting Barriers with Mindset Changes: Craig Groeschel

• Similar to when you have kids- your mindset changes
  5 Mindset Changes:
  · Think Differently About Our Church/Organization Culture
• Complaint: “Our People won’t _______ “
• SOLUTION: We have not led them to ________ . We have not led them to the desired results.
• Pray, God make me _______- whatever the leadership quality needed to break out of the stuck culture…. Lead by example.
• Think Differently About Programming
• Evaluate “true” effectiveness- what is actually creating spiritual growth?
• What is actually creating profit and positive customer experiences?
• Do less, do what you can be the best in the world- Reach more by doing less.
  · Think Differently About Your Mission
• Are we about our mission or guarding people’s feelings?
• We can’t allow someone to hold back the mission of the church.
• On our staff- who is it that is a blockade to the mission?
  · Think Differently About People Leaving the Church
• We can grow when people leave
• We can make it difficult for the wrong people to leave
• Allows the gripers and grumblers to leave
• Churches need to be confident in who they are like a dating relationship- that culture is attractive
  · Think Differently About Limitations
• Many times your greatest blessing is going to come from your greatest limitation
• Great leaders see opportunities while others see limitations

  ACTION ITEMS:

• Find someone a few steps ahead of me and find out how they “think”- How do they think/process? Value understanding how one thinks over how they “do” something
• Identify one painful decision that you’ve been avoiding and commit to making the right decision no matter what the short-term effect may be
• Lead by example. Am I modeling what I want my team to be doing?

If I did this, I would have a completely different look on my face.

There are times when our roles may shift at work… If done too early or without the right process, you or people on your team can end up in this position…

Have you ever felt this way at your organization? Here are some observations of doing the “splits” at work:

• If you begin doing a role at work before you have any authority to do the role, you may feel some pain for taking it on too early.
• You can fake it for only so long… this guy has a determined look on his face now… I’d like to see him in an hour…
• With growth comes change. With change comes some pain.
• Not everyone can do the splits at your organization, there comes a need to have people that are flexible for a short period of time.
• Leaders, managers… are you doing this to anyone on your team? If so, don’t leave them “exposed” too long.
• Are you doing the splits currently? It’s better to have a conversation with the decision maker(s) and manage one post well than to drown trying to hold on to both…
• Clarity is important as roles shift- those impacted need to understand the changes and what adjustments they may need to make.
• Leaders, when you have done all the analysis of the changes, commit to it, support it, and keep casting the vision to your team. When you’re the one doing the “splits”, it just confuses your people and well, let’s just say you don’t look like this guy…
• Have both feet in with change, don’t keep one foot in the past.

Today’s technology-driven, viral world has made it easier and easier for businesses, people, and ideologies to become more decentralized in our generation.

Decentralized: No leader. Chaotic. No order. Creative. Not about profit. Quick. Easily mutates. Mobile. Think Napster, al Qaeda, AA…

Individuals are now able to work from their phones, play games on the road, have nearly constant internet access, and can stay in contact minute by minute with friends all over the globe. Life is mobile. As backwards as it seems, relationships can actually grow with technology with no face to face contact. The pendulum is swinging towards decentralization. What about the church?

• As people become more decentralized, they will trend toward decentralized options over centralized options. (Church online or podcasts vs. the 10:00 service on Sunday morning)
• We have options to experience some of the greatest speakers in the world every week at any time and any place. (There will need to be some strong reasons other than the pastor to keep me at your church)
• This trend will distract many people to fall away from their faith, lose focus, and without the weekly structure in their life, ultimately will be distracted in life and simply be growing old. This is true.
• This trend will cause ongoing growth throughout the week with multiple options for study, teaching, and connecting with mission all over the world. Faith in action will explode and more people will come to know Christ. This also is true.
• Churches that are losing people will either deny this trend, blame culture, blame their local economy or census report, blame other churches or will press into understanding our changing world to find ways to re-connect with the people in their community.
• God can handle centralized or decentralized. He is God. He’s good. This has not surprised Him. He can handle our various methodologies, styles, trends and personalities.
• No change in today’s church model will lead to continued decline in church attendance in the upcoming decade. (Just because people aren’t within the four walls doesn’t mean that God isn’t at work- He’s always way ahead of any curve, on the curve, and helping those behind the curve)

What does that look like for your church and community? What questions are you asking? This is one takaway from The Starfish and the Spider.

• We are better communicators when we let someone else review what we write (emails included)
• We are better speakers when someone is allowed to give input on points that didn’t make sense, the overuse of hand motions, or the fact the light is glowing off our bald head…
• We are better teammates when we ask for input, feedback, and ideas for improvement when relating to others, our management style, or how we ran a meeting…
• We live more on purpose when we allow others to see how we actually spend our time, energy, and money vs. the vision we have for our lives and what we “say” our priorities are….
• We can better see “blind spots” in our faith if we allow others to speak into our lives and engage in some sort of accountability….

We all need editors. The problem is I like me. I’m enamored with me. I think my ideas are darn good. I don’t like being wrong. Why? I’m right. My problem is me… I need to get over me. So, I grit my teeth, I try to listen, I try to listen to others and helpful critiques because it’s good for me and sometimes I have to keep telling myself that.

If I live and do with only me to see, my life and results will be half of what they could be….

So in that vain, this surprised me… this was a new one… this picture was taken from one of my editors (my wife Kem) while I was working from home at our kitchen table… I was not mad or stressed… I’m sure I was lost in my email and pushing projects and agendas…. so this is my “normal” look….. Would you want to approach this guy if he was working in his office? Does he look like he’s loving what he does? Does he look fun? What a grump.

So consider me edited… I’m going to try and smile more. I don’t want to scare people.

BIG TAKAWAY: Get your own paparazzi… seeing random photos of yourself may be good for personal editing…

So how about it? Got Edit?

This Sunday, Kem and I visited Summit Church led by Isaac Hunter in Orlando, FL. It was great to see some old peeps and hear some great, practical steps to initiate change in one’s life. Isaac talked about the three components that need to be in place for change to occur quoting from some of Dallas Willard’s works (all three need to be in place for effective change):

• Vision of who you are, what could be…
• Intentions: Having a plan to play out that vision and be that vision
• Practical, visible, actionable steps to carry it out

He used a great analogy of a treadmill to our personal growth/faith… You can have a vision to get in shape (You buy a treadmill), you can have intentions of actually using the treadmill (You map out a time, plan, and even have a chart in place to log your times and dates)…. but if you never get on the treadmill, actually do the workout… change doesn’t happen.. Vision and intentions alone are not enough… Would you then look at the treadmill and say, well that didn’t work, I guess I’ll return it…?

The same can apply to our personal faith, I can believe I’m a child of God, I can write out a plan of how I’m going to spend time in the Bible, small groups, going to church, serving, etc.. But if I don’t actually get off my rear and “be” the plan- can I begin experience God and the inside-out change that can occur in my life? Would I simply say- “Ah, that God-thing just didn’t cut it, or man, I just feel like the same person, nothing is changing in me…” when I haven’t actually done anything to initiate that change? Like the treadmill, a vision of who we are in Christ and good intentions don’t cut it to see inward change in my life- Am I reading my Bible, pressing in with conversations with friends, reading books, going to church regularly, giving my money, praying…? The reverse is true as well…. a bunch of “actions” without a clear vision of who you are in Christ can turn into a “rules” list or a bunch of good “works” without clarity of who you are in Him…

This can apply across the board in business, ministry, personal faith, eating plans, and being a good spouse or parent.

It’s not easy, but some things I am working to do:

• Share my vision and plans with others, get feedback, schedule times with these key people to talk about how I’m doing or not doing
• I’m keeping track of my list of books I read this year- 12 is my minimum, I hope for much more- I try to read in areas I want to continue to stretch, learn, or improve-
• I measure my progress in my Outlook calendar weekly- this is where I “live” in my day to day activities-
• For more, I recently whiteboarded my life to work on my vision/plan (intentions)

Thanks Isaac for the great reminders and encouragement to press on- I love seeing other churches that “get-it” and are about revolutionizing today’s “Christian” and what it should mean… more on this later…